Nuts and seeds are crucial ingredients for a large variety of vegan cheeses. The best nuts to use for a mozzarella-type cheese are cashew nuts, as they’re great for achieving a very nice and smooth consistency.

Packed with anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals, cashew nuts have cancer fighting properties, protect your cells, hair and skin and can prevent gallstones. Be sure to always get the unsalted and unroasted kind, free from cracks and spots.

Another V.I.P. ingredient you need in order to make this delicious & healthy cheese is psyllium husk – a plant-based and 100% raw thickener. Psyllium Husk, native of India, promotes digestive health. It is commonly used as colon cleanser, relieving symptoms of constipation and diarrheas. This high fibre plant-food, helps to control blood sugar and supports heart health.

I am absolutely thrilled by the taste and consistency of this dairy-free healthy cheese and I encourage you to prepare it at home. Feel free to share the results if you liked it. 🙂

Add water, lemon juice and psylium husk in a bowl and mix well. Let it sit for about 2 hours to thicken.

Drain the water from the cashews and mix them in the food processor. Add a little bit of water if necessary to achieve a smooth consistency. Add psylium husk mixture, salt, pepper and herbs and mix again. You now have your mozzarella cheese mixture.

Add the mixture to a food storage container or bowl and let it sit for 30 minutes in the fridge.

Mozzarella is ready to serve!

Notes

Why are we soaking the nuts?

In short: To “activate” them. Soaking, sprouting and fermenting activates phytase, which inhibits the phytic acid and lectins bound in the phosphorus content of the outer layer of grains, legumes, nuts and seeds.

Phytic acid blocks absorption of minerals and inhibits the enzymes needed to digest food such as pepsin, trypsin and amylase. In the plant world phytic acid is required for protection against insects and to maintain the freshness of seeds for germination and protect against moulds and fungi. Fast forward to our plates though and digestively it binds to minerals and locks them into a phytate complex, therefore leaving the mineral and phosphorous content of foods unobservable. These enzyme inhibitors block the body’s enzymes needed for the proper digestion of food.

Raw food, often called living food, makes you live longer, healthier and happier. J

Creating dishes that are delicious, colourful and super nutritious without cooking at all? This was certainly attractive to me right from the beginning. Pretty soon I decided to buy a dehydrator and to dig deeper into the sheer endless possibilities of raw foods. Other interesting techniques for raw food preparation, besides dehydrating, include marinating, fermenting, sprouting, sealing or smoking – all of which can extend your set of ingredients and also add another dimension to your plates. With intense flavours, a variety of textures and more dense foods (water is reduced by dehydrating for example) it will keep your hunger away for a longer period of time and make you feel overall more satisfied.

With the right mind-set and determination, I decided to do a whole raw food month together with my boyfriend. So the idea was to eating raw vegan, living foods only and to also include a 3 days juice cleanse (more details on this coming soon) and see how we’d feel.

Well, during this month our energy levels went up ridiculously, increasing our productivity and improving our stamina and overall wellbeing. I was happy and focused given any moment of the day. I felt more clarity during work and we could even notice that the white of our eyes got clearer and brighter.

Clearly, there are plenty of benefits when living on a balanced wholefoods and raw vegan diet (low fat, low oil) and I would encourage EVERYONE to work towards a more healthy, sustainable and compassionate lifestyle, skipping meat and dairy products entirely, and to cleanse your body more profoundly at least once per year by going Raw Vegan for 7 days.

This 7 Days Raw Food Plan has been kept simple for everyone to try out. It was carefully created to give you a good variety of proteins, vitamins, minerals and fibres, which are very important for your health. For breakfast I would advice you developing a fix morning routine, preparing green smoothies of your choice while keep changing ingredients. Check out this great picture and you will see how easy it is and how many options you have. Use my green smoothie recipe on your first day if you like and then be creative and make your own ones for the remaining days. You will become a green smoothie pro, how amazing, isn’t it?

You will probably notice that there are no snacks & sweets for in-between meals and that’s because I want to make your life a bit easier: instead of buying or preparing different snacks & sweets for each day you can prepare a good amount of raw energy balls that will last throughout this plan and will keep you satisfied. You can find my simple raw energy balls 3 ways recipe on VegiTales – around 10 of each flavour combination should be a good amount for the week.

Bananas and a few dates make always for an amazing snack too. Additionally, I’d advice to include some seasonal fruits each day.

You can get the FREE 7 Days Raw Food Plan by subscribing to the VegiTales page. I will support you and advice you during your cooked food holiday whenever necessary.

Eat right, shine bright.

Do not take this information as personal medical advice. Always work with your physician or qualified healthcare provider before adjusting medications or making major diet changes.

It’s been a wonderful year 2015, full of achievements and unforgettable memories for the Vegi Tales project. I am very grateful to have met such inspiring people and being able to share my food creations with them is priceless. Thank you all from the heart!

As a celebration of an amazing last year and just before a special full moon Christmas, I decided to organize a “Vegan Canapés” event together with my dear friends and great vegan chefs, Kuteer & Aga.

SUNday December 20th and 21 degrees in Ibiza was the perfect day! <3

Our vegan canapés buffet united flavours and spices from around the world, with dishes inspired from Europe, Asia and Africa: 3 appetizers, 3 main courses and 3 desserts, each themed by a different country.

It’s almost always the case that the special treat of the meal comes at the end. This time all desserts were prepared raw vegan and came out incredibly tasty.

Kuteer made his lovely Tiramisu, Aga prepared her Superfood dessert with Pinneaple & Chia and I decided to go for my Raw Vegan Caramel Bites with Sea Salt. <3

The Caramel Bites can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months and you will always have an incredible dessert to surprise your guests with or to simply treat yourself.

For all the guests that attended the event and everyone else reading my post, I promised to post the recipe, so here it goes..

Place all the ingredients in a high speed blender / food processor blade S and mix until you have a sticky paste consistency. Line a cake pan (8 x 8 cm) with parchment paper and press the mixture until it's pretty even.

Caramel Layer

In a food processor / high speed blender add cashews and coconut milk. Mix very well. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix again. Pour the filling on the top of the base and put it in the fridge for 1-2 hours before adding the next layer.

Top Layer

In a warm bowl add the melted coconut oil and slowly mix it with the rest of the ingredients. Be careful and quick when adding the top layer mix onto the caramel layer, as it hardens very fast.

The edges of the paper should allow you to easily lift and get your mix out of the pan. I chose to cut my Caramel Bites in 25 little squares, but just do it how it pleases you. Enjoy!

Notes

A little tip for cutting the dessert: place the cake upside down and start by cutting trough the bottom layer first, using a very sharp chef knife. Otherwise, when cutting through the chocolate layer first, it might break.

Bare in mind that using fresh organic products is the best choice and it elevates your meals to another level.

I would like to thank “Raw Food Magazine” from the heart for featuring my very first Raw Pizza recipe from a couple of years ago in their November 2016 issue. I was delighted to be selected among some truly amazing chefs, which inspired me on my journey.

Since I’ve been dedicating more time to creating raw pizzas, I thought it was time now for an update and a new recipe. This pizza with veggie crust was clearly a favourite during last summer’s yoga & meditation retreats – extremely tasty and very nutritious. 🙂

More veggies in the base and for toppings and a super yum tomato paste make this a pizza dream come true! Healthy, delicious and fun to share with friends and family.

Mix all ingredients until everything is well combined. Press the dough gently onto the drying sheets of your dehydrator, creating thin and even layers. By keeping the layers extra thin you'll get a nice crunchy pizza base. Dehydrate at 40 degrees for about 12 h.* If your pizza base is thicker it may take a bit longer.

Tomato Sauce

Add all ingredients to a high speed blender or food processor and mix until you have a smooth paste. Set aside.

Cashew Cheese

Add all ingredients to a high speed blender or food processor and mix until smooth.

Toppings

Cut the desired amount of mushrooms in very thin slices. Place it in a bow and marinate overnight with some olive oil, tamari, lemon juice, minced garlic and ginger.

Use other ingredients for assembly as desired.

Have fun assembling and creating your pizza slices!

Notes

*if you don't have a dehydrator, use your oven at the lowest temperature and with the oven door ajar.

Hi i'm Monica! :)
I’m a passionate vegan chef and raw food lover. About 5 years ago I decided to adapt to a plant-based lifestyle, which changed my life completely and I cannot imagine being more happy than now!
Discovering all the beautiful & nutritious dishes is exciting & fun, so let me share with you some of the creations prepared in my Vegi Tales kitchen.
I hope you enjoy it!